‘Not enough evidence’ to prosecute anyone over the leak of CCTV footage of Matt Hancock kissing his aide, as Britain’s data watchdog officially closes probe
- ‘Insufficient evidence’ is found to prosecute two people suspected of the leak
- The Information Commissioner’s Officer has now closed its criminal probe
- The watchdog raided homes and seized computers in south England last year
- Matt Hancock resigned as health secretary following the leak of CCTV images
No-one will be prosecuted over the leak of CCTV footage of disgraced former health secretary Matt Hancock breaching Covid rules by kissing his departmental aide in his office.
Britain’s data watchdog has found ‘insufficient evidence’ to prosecute two people who were suspected of unlawfully obtaining and disclosing the footage from the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC).
The Information Commissioner’s Office said it had now closed its criminal probe, which saw two homes raided in the south of England and computers seized last year.
The ICO launched its investigation after receiving a complaint of a data breach from the DHSC’s CCTV operator, EMCOR Group Plc.
The watchdog said in a statement today: ‘Given the seriousness of the report and the wider implications it potentially had for the security of information across government, the ICO had a legal duty to carry out an impartial assessment of the evidence available to determine if there had been a breach of the law.
‘Forensic analysis revealed that the leaked images were most likely obtained by someone recording the CCTV footage screens with a mobile phone.
‘Six phones retrieved during the execution of search warrants did not contain the relevant CCTV footage.
‘After taking legal advice, the ICO concluded that there was insufficient evidence to charge anyone with criminal offences under the Data Protection Act 2018.’
The leaked CCTV footage revealed Matt Hancock passionately embracing his departmental aide Gina Coladangelo in the Department of Health and Social Care last year
Mr Hancock has since described how he broke Coronavirus guidelines because he ‘fell in love’ with Ms Coladangelo.
The leak of the CCTV images and footage of Mr Hancock passionately embracing Gina Coladangelo – a non-executive director at DHSC – led to his resignation as health secretary in June last year.
He admitted to breaching the Covid rules he himself had helped design.
The Sun newspaper, which published the leaked CCTV footage, branded the ICO raids in July last year an ‘outrageous abuse’ that could deter whistleblowers from coming forward.
Mr Hancock, who was married to his wife Martha when the CCTV footage was leaked, has since described how he broke Coronavirus guidelines because he ‘fell in love’.
‘That’s something that was completely outside of my control and I of course regret the pain that that’s caused and the very, very, very public nature … but I fell in love with someone,’ he recently told the Diary Of A CEO podcast.
The former Cabinet minister was keen to stress during the podcast interview that he and Ms Coladangelo had not been having ‘casual sex’.
Despite having quit government over his Covid rules breach, Mr Hancock has given his backing to Boris Johnson and Rishi Sunak to continue in office after the Prime Minister and Chancellor were fined over a birthday bash in Number 10 in June 2020.
Mr Hancock posted on Twitter yesterday: ‘The PM & Chancellor got the big calls right during the pandemic & are now leading the fight against Putin’s illegal war in Ukraine
‘They have rightly apologised. We must now move forwards & get on with delivering for people.’
A DHSC spokesperson said: ‘We note the outcome of the ICO’s investigation and will continue to work with them to learn any lessons from this incident.
‘We take the security of our personnel, systems and estates extremely seriously.
‘Since this incident, we have worked with security specialists from across government to review procedures and will keep them continually under review.’
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